1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a missile launch and guidance apparatus of a rail-shoe launching type, and more particularly, to a missile launch and guidance apparatus, which keeps constant the gap between a shoe and a launch tube rail regardless of the behavior of a missile taking place in a launching process, and reduces the drag and weight of an in-flight missile as the shoe is separated from the missile after launching, thereby exhibiting the maximum flight performance.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, a missile launch and guidance apparatus of a rail-shoe launching type is designed to firmly restrain a missile in the normal position of a launch tube rail so as to avoid structural changes induced by the force applied from the outside and the self-weight of the missile in the operation of a missile system.
A shoe is designed in a profile that is advantageous from the aerodynamic standpoint so as to minimize degradation in flight performance such as drag inducement while maintaining sufficient structural strength with respect to a launch load generated in a launching process. For this, a conventional missile shoe is assembled in a manner to be fixed integrally to a missile body so as not to be separated from it.
At least one of the conventional shoe fixed integrally to the missile body is installed according to the center of gravity of the missile. The shoe firmly and steadily support the missile on the rail of the launch tube at the time of a pre-launching operation, while it carries out sliding movement on the rail of the launch tube at the time of launching.
However, the conventional shoe, which is designed so as to have sufficient structural strength with respect to self-weight, external loads, external impacts, and launch loads, is assembled so as not to be separated from the missile body, which leads to a problem of increase in drag force during the flight of the missile.
Moreover, in order to smoothly move the missile along the rail surface of the launch tube, there exists a gap between the launch tube rail and the shoe due to a tolerance provided by considering launching dynamics, manufacture, and assembling. If a manufactured state of the launch tube rail is poor, the gap between the launch tube rail and the shoe becomes extremely smaller or larger, which causes the missile to be caught in the launch tube rail or makes the start-up of the missile unstable, thereby affecting the structural safety of the missile and of the launch tube and rail components at the time of missile operation and launching.